We stared at each other for a long beat in silence before the laughter started, quiet at first until neither one of us could contain ourselves.
Then I felt the pain returning. I screamed for the nurse.
THE DEADLY LION
Herk Z. Jones stared at the blank wall. It hadn’t changed much since the day they brought him into the room. His main activity these days was to watch the passage of the sun as it moved across the floor. The windows in these isolation units no longer had bars over them, but it would take cannon fire to break one apart. He only saw his caseworker when she came in each day.
His other routine was the meals they fed him, which he timed according to the passage of the sun. With each meal came a routine of medication. They claimed the medication was for his own good and he had no reason to doubt them; it dulled his memories and he was grateful for what it did.
He still remembered the drop into the training field after the medics gave them the experimental drug that was supposed to make his unit an invincible fighting machine. All of them volunteered to take the drug after the last terrorist attack. There was plenty of revenge flowing through the military after it happened. They were told the drug, if it worked, would allow them to be the first group of Special Forces dropped into the enemy territory.
Herk was a big man with broad shoulders and a muscled torso. He spent the time he had in the room practicing his katas and doing isometrics to keep his body in check. If he were ever allowed to leave, he would need that body.
Why had he allowed Eunice to come along on the mission to test the experimental drug? She’d demanded to be included in the unit. She too was Special Forces, one of the few women to obtain the rank. The scientists who created the drug were eager to see how it performed on women, so they allowed her to go along. She was also his fiancée.
He couldn’t forget what happened during the test drop into the field. They were supposed to take a simulated fortress after swallowing the capsules on the ground. His entire unit was equipped with bio monitors to follow their heart and vitals. No one seemed to think much of the drug after the recommended fifteen minutes elapsed, but they advanced around the obstacles and took their objectives. Some of the other soldiers complained of a headache, but nothing more.
Herk was about to request a pick-up after they’d achieved their goal when the full force of the drug struck him. He felt angry, invincible and in a rage at the same time. He looked at the unit with him and realized they were worthless pieces of meat who thwarted every attempt he’d ever made to succeed in life. Especially his fiancé.
He killed her first.
Herk couldn’t remember all of what happened. He remembered her turning with a smile as she thought the training mission was successful. The drug told him to kill, kill, kill and he slit her throat with his survival knife. Then he remembered turning the safety off his rifle and unleashing it on the rest of his unit. It sickened him when he remembered how good it felt to kill them.
By the time the security team hit him with the Taser, Herk had slaughtered everyone with him. Eleven bodies lay on the field.
However, he didn’t remember much of it. Once the rage struck him, everything else was a complete blank. The news of what happened was delivered to him slowly over a course of months. He was surprised someone hadn’t taken him out back to meet a firing squad. What he’d done was beyond evil. He’d wiped out eleven of his best friends, his brothers, along with the woman he loved. Herk wanted it to end. Perhaps they would give him a loaded gun and allow him to finish it all.
Herk was thrown out of his trance by the sound of a key turning in a lock. All these months in confinement, were they finally going to let him out? Up until now, he’d never been allowed to leave the room. All his interviews were done through a polycarbonate partition or inside his room with three guards at the ready.
The door opened and a nurse stood there with several security guards behind her. “Herk,” she said, “you’re leaving today, but you have to see the doctor first.” He shrugged and followed her down the hall.
They came to a door with no name on it. The nurse opened it with a special pass card. ”Go inside, Herk,” she ordered, “the doctor is waiting.” Herk walked inside and the nurse stayed in the hall with the security guards.
As the door shut behind him, Herk looked the office over. It was bare, similar to one a military officer used and not lined with books no one bothered to read. There was a flag on the wall and a picture of the president. His eyes settled on the man behind the desk in front of him.
He was average in height with a little bit of weight on him. No uniform, which meant he was some kind of civilian attached to the military. He was bald and appeared to be in his fifties. The man wore a plain business suit and didn’t have any professional certificates behind him. He motioned to the chair, which faced the desk. Herk walked over and shoved his massive frame into it.
“I’m required to inform you that everything we say is being recorded,” he said sounding bored. “You can call me Doctor Jay; the rest of my name isn’t pronounceable for English speakers. I work for the military and run a special branch that answers directly to the president. According to the recent act passed by congress, the president is allowed two national security teams, which answer and report to him only. Mine is one of them. Do you have any questions?”
“Don’t I have to sign something?” Herk asked. “And does your organization have a name?”
“For purposes of payroll, it’s known as the High Executive Resource Amalgamation,” he replied. “Or HERA for short. And no, papers don’t have to be signed.” Doctor Jay tossed a mint in his mouth and offered Herk one.
Herk shook his head. “So why am I here and when do I get out?”
“You’re here because I want you for a job. We investigate cases of national interest that the other intelligence services won’t. Because of what happened to you on that field, the military will only release you so long as you’re under my care. If you don’t want the job, you can go back to the room.”
“I’ll take it,” Herk snapped. “Anything to avoid the room again.” He ran his hand over his shaved head.
“I need you to do ten jobs for me,” Doctor Jay said. “Ten jobs with no relapses and we’ll cashier you out. Then you’ll be free. Until then, your Aegean butt is Uncle Sam’s and mine. Does that sound good?”
“It sounds better than rotting in that room. Who do I have to kill?”
“No one for now. You did your quota already.”
“It wasn’t something I had control over,” Herk retorted. “You of all people should know about it.”
“I’ve seen the video and read all the reports,” Doctor Jay responded. “They’re all classified in case you ever want to see them. No one blames you for anything. However, we can’t let you out into human society until we know you won’t do it again. All work on that line of research was halted. The team responsible for it was reassigned elsewhere and warned never to talk about it. Officially, your entire unit was KIA. Including you. Therefore, officially, you don’t exist. Do you need me to go on?”
“No I don’t,” Herk responded. He sat there and wondered where this was all headed.
“You ever hear of Leon Nehemiah?” Doctor Jay asked, suddenly changing the subject. He rubbed his thin beard and looked Herk in the eyes.
“No, should I?” Herk responded. He stared back with a cold expression, something he’d learned from his grandfather who came from the Greek side of the border near Albania.
“You’ll need to learn a lot about him if you come to work for me,” Doctor Jay explained. “He went missing a year ago and I think he might have turned up in Philadelphia.”